A PRANKSTER thief who stole one of Banksy’s huge statues from a plinth insists he’d happily pinch another one of the graffiti artist’s priceless works.
Andy Link, known as AK47, has no problem with the masked raiders who snatched a Banksy satellite dish with a howling wolf stencilled on it from a London roof this week.
Anything imprinted with the mysterious Brit’s work is immediately at risk of being taken because they sell for six and seven figure sums.
So much so that the police box with piranhas painted on its glass by Banksy in the capital has been moved to protect it.
The idea that thieves would take a police sentry station might sound implausible but Andy pulled off a far more audacious heist.
He took a six feet high, three ton statue worth £1 million from London’s busy Shaftesbury Avenue 20 years ago in broad daylight.
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Andy, 63, originally from Wakefield in West Yorkshire, required a flatbed lorry to carry the weighty structure.
His operation, conducted with an art organisation called Art Kieda, was recounted in a recent documentary titled The Banksy Job.
If I am in the right place at the right time I will nick a Banksy again
Andy Link
Last night Andy, who is currently in Cambodia, told The Sun: “If I am in the right place at the right time I will nick a Banksy again.”
Andy knew the street artist before the world had heard of Banksy.
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They were part of the same rave and house party scene in London back in the late nineties and at the time Andy just knew him as “Rob.”
But he says the enigmatic street artist was never the life and soul of the party.
He recalls: “If you were in the company of 100 people you would remember 99 first before you remembered him.”
In some ways that has helped Banksy, whose real name Andy says is Robin Gunningham, maintain his anonymity.
He adds: “He hasn’t got that kind of personality that stands out, but he has survived with that.”
Fall out
Andy bought and sold Banksy’s works in the early days when it was only worth a few hundred pounds.
The two men fell out over one deal and Andy decided to get his own back by stealing the statue.
Andy claims: “He shouldn’t have called me a ‘tight a**** Northern git’ and expect me not to come back with something.”
He got together a team of friends, borrowed a truck and headed off to central London to grab the statue named The Drinker, which was a play on Rodin’s The Thinker.
Andy said: “I was nervous. I didn’t know what could happen. It was a heist.
“It was a robbery, even though we were just retrieving a dumped artefact.”
They were dressed in hi-vis jackets and wore gas masks to hide their identities, but told passers-by they were taking the statue for “ransom.”
Andy later informed the police he’d ‘found’ the statue.
They didn’t take any action because as far as they were concerned the art work had been placed in a public place by an anonymous person without permission.
I was nervous. I didn’t know what could happen. It was a heist
Andy Link
Andy later put a variation of the statue titled The Stinker nearby.
He says: “I class that whole thing as a piece of art in itself. The theft as well. I planned it.”
Last laugh
Unfortunately for Andy the original Banksy statue was stolen from his back yard in East London in 2007.
When it went up for sale at Sotheby’s auction house in 2019 for an expected £1million, Andy complained that The Drinker had been nicked from him.
He says: “People nicked it from my garden and sold it to a guy in America and I was told I wouldn’t get it back.”
Andy still has the traffic cone which Banksy had placed on The Drinker but is struggling to prove it is the genuine article.
Back in 2004 Banksy was not so high profile so it didn’t cause a massive furore.
These days, nobody could steal an artwork without it being major news.
Talking about the Howling Wolf satellite which was taken by men in masks, Andy says: “People only complain about it because it’s got the name Banksy on i, but it is the most simple stencils ever.
“He has vandalised the dish, but I don’t think it is wrong to steal them because he has put it there to be stolen, it is all part of his hype.
As soon as something is stolen there are ten copies
Andy Link
“That was an empty shop and it was a disused satellite dish so in my opinion it is detritus hanging on a wall.
“I think he knew it was going to be stolen. As soon as he puts a name to it someone is going to have it.”
Easy fakes
Andy, whose previous jobs have included producing pornography, laying rail tracks and organising rave parties, reveals that the illicit art market will now be full of forgeries of the Howling Wolf dish.
He explains: “As soon as something is stolen there are ten copies.”
But anyone prizing a Banksy from its rightful home could be committing a criminal act and might face the full force of the law.
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Previous offenders have been arrested and the Howling Wolf thieves might also get into trouble.
Andy, whose film The Banksy Job is currently streaming on Disney Plus, concludes: “If I took one I would make sure I didn’t break the law.”
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